Silent Rain

Lie - II

Still Tae POV :)

The first rays of sunlight peaked from behind the curtains, tickling my face. I fluttered my eyes open delicately, staring at the ceiling above. With one small yawn and the stretch of my stiff arms, I heaved myself up into a sitting position and looked at the clock. 5:30 am, Saturday, 14th August. This is explained why everything in the room looked so dull.

I got out of bed and went through my morning routine as fast as possible. Everything felt weird and different. Never did I have immediate access to a bathroom, without waiting for Appa or Eomma, and never did the room look so cold and dark this early in the morning. Staying in my pyjamas, I walked towards my balcony, opening the window and feeling a gush of freezing cold air.

The waterfall in front of me continued its quiet sounds, and the occasional honks and horns of cars passing by filled up the noiseless area. I shivered after a bit, stepping back into my room, leaving the window open a little bit. It was supposed to be Summer, but it sure didn't feel like it.

Deciding that I wanted to explore the house a bit more before breakfast, I silently walked out my room, into the eerily quiet hallway. My parents must have still been asleep, maybe I'd get in trouble if I went to some restricted area. They did tell me not to visit any of the rooms in this hallway without them doing it first. Something to do with cleaning problems and other stuff.

"I could just go back and sleep...but I'm not gonna sleep in a room next to other mysterious doors that could hide monsters, potentially killing me!" I rationalised with myself, "Plus they couldn't even get angry with me if they find out their precious Tae-bear is dead!"

Coming to the decision, I slowly crept past my parent's bedroom and opened the massive marble door into a Harry Potter-like corridor. I could count five wooden doors along the hallway, but it wouldn't be surprising to find six, assuming there's a secret door. Who knows? The possibilities of this mansion could be endless.

I opened the nearest door, turned on the light switch and found myself gaping at the delicate, golden chandelier hanging above an ancient Davenport desk. Small windows showed the trickles of sunlight through their stained, translucent glass. The walls were lined with dark flame birch wooden shelves, all carrying hundreds - if not thousands - of books, varying from small fairytales to large volumes. I ran my hand along the closest shelf, and felt my fingers move according to the different sizes and shapes.

A voice said, "Woah," then milli-seconds later, I realised it was mine.

Minutes passed and I found myself standing next to the polished oak desk situated in the middle of the study. Eight compartments were built into it, four on each side, allowing foot room in the middle; where directly above lay an old English typewriter. Alongside the machine stood three burnt candles, one of them particularly shorter than the rest.

On the other side of the desk, there was an empty, light blue flower pot and a book turned to the 169th page, filled with diagrams of some sort of science project (which I was definitely not going to be wasting my time studying). The next few minutes resulted in me rummaging through all eight drawers of the interesting bureau.

Whilst I had done that, there were a few things I had 'borrowed' to take a closer look at. A small orb, the colour of the ocean hue that was hung from a silver chain, was placed in a little, transparent box. Next to it, lay a gold encased compass which looked to be from the 19th century, something possibly worth hundreds now.

Multiple sketches of what seemed to be some sort of machine, were neatly piled in another drawer, their pages crusted and the ink fading. My eyes were directed to an ink pot next to it. It looked fairly new, as if they'd bought it a year or two ago. Tempted by the sight of a page trapped underneath it, covered in beautiful calligraphy, I grabbed the jar with the tips of my fingers, not wanting to leave many finger prints.

Opening the jar, I was met by a foul stench of tar and coal. The contents were sticky and slimy, crust against the edges.

"Oh god, that's revolting," I exclaimed, quickly closing it up and placing it back it belonged.

I walked to the globe which stood next to the type writer, spinning it around on the pole it was on when suddenly the sound of slow, heavy footsteps echoed through out the hallway. I frantically looked side to side, looking for a hiding place. I knew all too well that it was my father who'd always woken up the earliest, excluding today, and that if he'd found me here he'd be ready to punish and lecture me, possibly even forcing house rules in a place we'd just settled in.

Surely no one wanted to get grounded in a room you'd only just moved into.

Quickly settling under the desk, I huddled up and held my breath while pulling the chair in front of the desk as the footsteps stopped outside of the study entrance, the door slightly ajar. Shit, I thought, I didn't close the door! I peeked from the finger wide gap and a pair of slippers enter the room, the door creaking open.

"I don't remember opening this room," a low, coarse voice said.

He walked deeper in, I could tell he was glancing at everything. My heart bet faster, this was not meant to happen. He wasn't meant to wake up at 6am. His regular routine was to wake up at 6:30 sharp! So what was he doing 20 minutes earlier?

Please go away, please go away, please go away. I was always a bit scared of my Appa, no matter how laid back and sassy I was and seemed. He'd normally put up with my attitude but there were terrifying times he'd snap, making me willingly realise my place in my lane.

"One of the cleaners must've left it open I guess. I might as well go make breakfast," he concluded and in the matter of seconds, he'd slammed the door after him, making the books on the shelves lightly shake.

Waiting for a few minutes until I was sure he'd left the proximity, I slowly crept out from under the desk, dust particles dancing behind me. The sun had risen a bit more, the dark room lighting up a bit. There must've been many spiders hiding behind the walls of this mansion, along with secrets they must've been guarding.

Taehyung, you should get back to your room. Nodding to the inner voice at the back of my head, I crept open the door, almost on the tips of my toes. I flinched at ever creak the wooden floorboards of the hallway made but successfully, I'd closed the door and started heading to my room.

"Taehyung-ah, where are you going son?" the same voice from before, asked me.

I froze suddenly, and turned around from the gigantic stepping position that had left one of my feet dangling in the air. Scratching my head nervously, I rolled my eyes, trying to play my regular act. The act of not showing any sort of interest.

"I was going to my room, I just wanted to use the bathroom," I stated in matter of factly way.

"Isn't there a bathroom in your bedroom? Why not use that?" he asked.

"Well, if you must know, I haven't really set up anything. I would prefer to use the powder room you two have used instead,"

"Oh is that so? I'll get pest control to come as soon as possible,"

I stood there stiffly, watching his rub his eyes. Glancing at my watch, my mouth let out a yawn and my eyes widened after finding a solution.

"Oh would you look at the time, its time for me to get ready for breakfast," I said, almost ready to speed off to the direction of the open, "Oh and Appa, good morning,"

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cappuccino_mochi

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